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“Kali Hawlk”

Whatever you thought of Snapchat when it first debuted, you can’t deny that little white ghost icon is just about everywhere today. The app proved that it was more than just a social network for kids and teenagers to send silly messages to each other that quickly disappeared.

Photos, videos, and text shared on Snapchat maintains a short shelf life, so it’s understandable why that could add to your list of reasons why you haven’t gotten on board with this social app yet. Why go to the trouble of creating great content when you’re limited to 10 seconds of airtime per snap — which is just gone after 24 hours?

While the features of Snapchat remain the same, its user base has changed dramatically since it launched. It also provides unique, fun, and highly engaging ways to share content — and therefore, your products and your brand — with potential customers.

If you wrote off the app before, it might be time to take another look at Snapchat and how to use it as a retail business. We talked to a handful of experts who offered their tips and takeaways on using this platform to its maximum potential.

I get it: you’re a retailer, not a writer. But writing is a critical skill for every individual in the business of making sales and generating revenue from their products.

That’s because the secret to successful marketing, the key to more sales and conversions, lies in your copy.

“Copy” is just a way of saying written words and text. Copy appears in your product descriptions, on every single page of your website, in your social media posts and in your advertising — any place you use the written word for your business, you create copy.

That may sound a little intimidating, especially if you don’t consider yourself a writer (or worse, if you think you’re a bad writer).

But there’s good news, as that opening quote above hints at. You don’t need to be a literary genius in order to create persuasive product copy that compels customers to purchase more.

You’ve got a great ecommerce site that’s well-designed and features all your products in a beautiful display. Customers find the site easy to navigate once they’re on it, and your checkout process is a breeze.

These are key components to have in place if you want to sell online — but it’s not enough to have a nice website that lists what you offer in an organized fashion. Shoppers need to be able to find you on the web so they can browse your products online as well as information that drives them into your physical store. And that means you need to optimize your website for search.

Here, you’ll learn SEO for beginners so you can understand the basics of optimizing your site to show up in search engines. That way, it’s simple for customers to find you both online and offline.

Ever thought of running a pop-up store in your business? This “here today, gone tomorrow” type of retail storefront can help generate buzz with consumers and increase your sales.

You immediately provoke a sense of urgency, since a pop-up store isn’t a permanent installation. You can also create an immersive experience by bringing select items directly to customers so they can touch, see, and interact with a product before buying (an especially useful benefit for stores that mostly operate online).

The pop-up store concept offers a unique buying experience and the novelty alone can be enough to attract buyers. And when it comes to competing for attention at giant expos where retailers are set up shoulder-to-shoulder, many forgo the crowded expo hall floor and focus just on temporary storefronts.

Running the pop-up store instead of attending the expo also means less elbowing for shoppers’ attention, and potentially capturing more foot traffic from all the other, non-marathoners (but still serious shoppers) who prowl Newbury and Boylston Streets every day.

The products in your retail store speak for themselves. That’s all the experience your customers need: the joy and delight of interacting with the incredible items that line your (physicalordigital) shelves.

Many retailers slip into this line of thinking and then get stuck. As Doug Stephens pointed out in a blog post on his site,Retail Prophet, “most retailers assume customer experience is primarily an aesthetic concept and more about how stores and websites look and feel” than anything else.”

But settling for this definition of retail experience will limit your brand and cause you to miss out on opportunities to craft something truly great for your customers. Retailers and in-person sellers both big and small have the opportunity to create memorable, immersive experiences for their customers. Not only can these upgraded experiences facilitate more brand awareness, but also a higher level of brand loyalty.

But how do you get started? And what does a high-quality experience look like from a shopper’s perspective and a merchant’s point of view? We talked to a couple of industry experts who helped us dig deeper into what constitutes a memorable experience and look at how retailers can create them in their own storefronts and booths.

Customer relations and service depend heavily on what retailers communicate to the people who buy their products. And ways, methods, and channels of communication have radically changed in recent years.

As a result, the relationship between a business and its customers doesn’t look the same today as it did even 10 years ago. That means the way you deliver your customer service shouldn’t look the same today as it did in the past, either.

Serving your customers in unique, fresh ways can boost brand loyalty and encourage new, inquisitive customers to experience what you offer for themselves. It can become part of your differentiator, setting you apart from your competitors.

In the digital age, good customer service can even go viral, spreading your message far beyond your normal audience. Taking good care of consumers can even double as effective marketing for your retail store, whether you use it in a campaign or it turns into excellent PR fodder for media to run with.

Not sure how to get started? Take some customer service tips from these seven retailers who embrace new ways to do business — and serve the people who help their companies make profits.

Many retailers put a lot of their time, focus, and resources into finding ways to generate more sales.

After all, more sales means more revenues. And more revenues provide more opportunity for future business growth.

But what about the actual process for making those sales? What about the transaction itself?

While it’s important to drive new customers to purchase products (and keep existing customers loyal and coming back again and again), retailers can’t neglect the systems and processes that physically allow for sales to happen.

This is where the right POS, or point-of-sale, comes into play. The best POS systems allow you to not only actually conduct sales transactions, but also handle a number of other activities around that sale from inventory management to returns and exchanges to tracking customer behavior.

With so many solutions available to retailers, finding the best and the right POS for your business can feel challenging. And that’s why we put together this step-by-step guide that will take you through the entire process, from research to testing to decision-making.

Ready to get started? First, you need to follow a bit of timeless advice: know thyself. (Or, in this case, your business and how you sell).

What if you didn’t need to pay to market your business? What if your ideal customers came straight to you — and in fact, were eager and excited to hear from you?

Traditional marketing strategies require you to go out and find your customers first. Then you need to interrupt what they were doing in some way.

If they read a magazine, for example, that interruption comes in the form of a page dedicated to advertising your product (that you paid to promote).

Finally, you need to hope that your interruption is memorable enough that a potential shopper will recall it at some point in the future when they’re ready to make a purchase.

This is outbound marketing, and it’s characterized by retailers proactively getting in front of customers. That isn’t all bad. But it’s not always effective, since it depends on demanding attention — and it’s usually expensive.

As hard as you try, you can’t please everyone. From mistakes your company makes to shoppers who are just downright unpleasant or rude, finding a way to handle angry customers is a reality you must face as a retailer.

But it doesn’t need to be complicated — and in fact, you can view dealing with angry customers as an opportunity to put these great customer service tips into practice to make a lasting impact on your business and your customers.

Each time a customer offers their feedback, good or bad, is an opportunity. This is a chance to not only resolve a problem, but to transform someone’s mindset about your brand from negative to positive through your way of handling their concerns.

The next time you come across a shopper who’s less than pleased, keep these strategies in mind to diffuse the situation and turn the interaction into a great customer relations.

In a world full of blogs to read, social media accounts to follow, and YouTubers to watch, it can feel impossible for a retail entrepreneur to cut through the noise and reach their ideal customer.

Despite the content overload that’s weighing down the Internet, there’s still one line of access that puts you (and your business) front and center on screens around the world and directly in front of your shoppers’ eyeballs.

The thing is, it’s not always easy to get this direct line of access — which makes it all the more valuable.

Through email, you can show up for your target market instead of hoping they’ll come and find you. It’s a direct way to remind your prospects you exist, nudge existing customers to make another purchase, or provide additional value through exclusive content, coupons, and deals.

Email is also a fantastic medium for building connections and relationships. It’s a one-on-one conversation that can make consumers feel seen, heard, and appreciated. And that can lead to loyal customers who don’t just buy fromyou,but advocate for you.